Musician By Night: The Doors / Part 1 of 2

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Doors / Part 1 of 2

Promotional photo of The Doors in late 1966

The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger. The band took its name from Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception, the title of which was a reference to a William Blake quotation: "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite." They were among the most controversial rock acts of the 1960s, due mostly to Morrison's wild, poetic lyrics and charismatic but unpredictable stage persona. After Morrison's death in 1971, the remaining members continued as a trio until finally disbanding in 1973.

The Doors (1966 Ondine Discotheque NYC)

They were signed to Elektra Records in 1966. The 1967 release of The Doors was the first in a series of top ten albums in the US, followed by Strange Days (1967), Waiting for the Sun (1968), The Soft Parade (1969), Morrison Hotel (1970), Absolutely Live (1970) and L.A. Woman (1971), with 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 5 Multi-Platinum album awards in the United States alone. Although The Doors' active career ended in 1973, their popularity has persisted. According to the RIAA, they have sold 32.5 million certified units in the US. The band has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger continue to tour as Manzarek-Krieger or Ray Manzarek & Robby Krieger of The Doors for legal issues, performing Doors songs exclusively. The Doors were the first American band to accumulate eight consecutive gold LPs. In 1993, The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Jim Morrison (The Doors)

1965–68

Origins and formation:

The origins of The Doors lie in a chance meeting between acquaintances and fellow UCLA film school alumni Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach in Los Angeles in July 1965. Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs (Morrison said "I was taking notes at a fantastic rock-n-roll concert going on in my head") and, with Manzarek's encouragement, sang "Moonlight Drive".

Keyboardist Manzarek was in a band called Rick & the Ravens with his brothers Rick and Jim Manzarek, while drummer John Densmore was playing with The Psychedelic Rangers, and knew Manzarek from meditation classes. In August, Densmore joined the group, renamed The Doors, and the five, along with bass player Patty Sullivan (later credited using her married name Patricia Hansen in the 1997 box CD release) recorded a six-song demo in September 1965. This has since then circulated widely as a bootleg recording. The band took their name from a line in Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception; "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite". The line comes originally from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

That month the group recruited guitarist Robby Krieger, and the final lineup — Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore — was complete.

By 1966, the group was playing the LA club London Fog and soon graduated to the prestigious Whisky a Go Go, where they were the house band, supporting acts including Van Morrison's group Them. On their last night together the two bands joined up for "In the Midnight Hour" and a twenty-minute jam session of Them's "Gloria". Prior to graduating to Whisky a Go Go, Morrison went to many record labels trying to land a deal. He did score one but it did not pan out. On August 10, they were spotted by Elektra Records president Jac Holzman who was present at the recommendation of Love singer Arthur Lee, whose group was on Elektra. After Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw two sets of the band playing at the Whisky a Go Go, they signed them to the Elektra Records label on August 18—the start of a long and successful partnership with Rothchild and engineer Bruce Botnick. Later that month, the club fired the band after a profanity-filled performance of "The End".

Debut album:

The band recorded their first album from August 24 to 31, 1966 at Sunset Sound Recording Studios. The Doors' self-titled debut LP was released in the first week of January 1967. It featured most of the major songs from their set, including the nearly 12-minute musical drama "The End".

In November 1966, Mark Abramson directed a promotional film for the lead single "Break On Through (To the Other Side)." To promote the single, The Doors made their television debut on a Los Angeles TV show called Boss City, circa 1966, possibly early 1967 and then on a Los Angeles TV show called Shebang, miming to "Break On Through," on New Year's Day 1967. This clip has never been officially released by The Doors.

In early 1967 The Doors appeared on The Clay Cole Show (Saturday evenings at 6 pm on WPIX Channel 11 out of NYC) where they performed their single "Break On Through". Research has determined that the tapes were all wiped, the only shows that still exist are the final ones copied by an employee of the station, unfortunately this was long after The Doors' appearance. The Doors returned to The Clay Cole Show a second time on June 24 where they most likely performed "Light My Fire."

Since "Break on Through" was not very successful on the radio, the band turned to "Light My Fire". The problem with this song was that it was seven minutes long, so producer Paul

Jim Morrison and Robby Krieger (1968) at the Top of The Pops

Rothchild cut it down to a three minute song by editing out the lengthy keyboard and guitar solos in the center section. "Light My Fire" became the first single from Elektra Records to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, selling over a million copies. "Light My Fire" was the first song ever written by Robby Krieger and was the beginning of the band's success.

Early live recordings at The Matrix:

From March 7 to March 11, 1967, The Doors performed at the Matrix Club in San Francisco, California. The March 7 and 10 shows were recorded by a co-owner of The Matrix, Peter Abram. These recordings are notable as they are among the earliest live recordings of the band to circulate. On November 18, 2008, The Doors published a compilation of these recordings, Live at the Matrix 1967, on the band's boutique Bright Midnight Archives label.

Early television performances:

The Doors appeared on American television on August 25, 1967, guest-starring on the variety TV series, Malibu U, performing "Light My Fire." They did not appear live. The band is seen on a beach and are performing the song in play back. The music video did not gain any commercial success and the performance was more or less forgotten. It was not until they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show that they gained attention on television.

The Doors made their international television debut in May 1967, recording a version of "The End" for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) at O'Keefe Centre in Toronto. But after its initial broadcasts, it remained unreleased except in bootleg form until the release of The Doors Soundstage Performances DVD in 2002. As "Light My Fire" climbed the charts in June and early July, The Doors were on the East Coast as an opening act for Simon and Garfunkel in Forest Hills, Queens and as headliners in a Greenwich, Connecticut, high-school auditorium.

The Doors on March 7, 1967 at Steve Pauls' Scene

On September 17, 1967, The Doors gave a memorable performance of "Light My Fire" on The Ed Sullivan Show. According to Ray Manzarek, network executives asked that the word "higher" be removed in favor of "better." The group initially agreed to this, but nonetheless performed the song in its original form, either because they had never intended to comply with the request, or Jim Morrison was nervous and forgot to make the change (Manzarek has given conflicting accounts). Either way, "higher" was sung out on national TV, and a furious Ed Sullivan canceled another six shows that had been planned, to which Jim Morrison reportedly said to a show producer: "Hey man. We just did the Sullivan Show."

On December 24th, The Doors performed "Light My Fire" and "Moonlight Drive" live for The Jonathan Winters Show, their performance was taped for later broadcast. From December 26 to December 28, the group played at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. An excerpt taken from Stephen Davis' book on Jim Morrison (p. 219–220):

The next night at Winterland, a TV set was wheeled onstage during The Doors set so the band could see themselves on The Jonathan Winters Show. They stopped playing "Back Door Man" when their song came on. The audience watched The Doors watching themselves on TV. They finished the song when their bit was done, and Ray walked over and turned the TV off. The next night was their last ever in Winterland.

They played two more dates in Denver on December 30 and December 31, 1967, capping off a year of almost constant touring.

Strange Days:

The Doors spent several weeks in Los' Angeles' Sunset Studios recording their second album, Strange Days, experimenting with the new technology, notably the Moog synthesizer they now had available. The commercial success of Strange Days was middling, peaking at number three on the Billboard album chart but quickly dropping, along with a series of underperforming singles. The chorus from the album's single "People Are Strange" inspired the name of the 2010 documentary of The Doors, When You're Strange.

Strange Days was the first Doors album recorded with a studio musician on bass, and this continued on all subsequent studio albums. Manzarek explained that his keyboard bass was well-suited for live situations but that it lacked the "articulation" needed for studio recording Douglass Lubahn played on Strange Days and the next two albums; but the band utilized several other musicians for this role, often using more than one bassist on the same album. Kerry Magness, Leroy Vinnegar, Harvey Brooks, Ray Neopolitan, Lonnie Mack and Jerry Scheff are credited as bassists who worked with the band.

The Doors in 1967

New Haven Incident:

On December 9, 1967, The Doors performed a now infamous concert at New Haven Arena in New Haven, Connecticut, which ended abruptly when Morrison was arrested by local police. Morrison became the first rock artist ever to be arrested onstage during a concert performance.

Jim Morrison’s mug shot in New Haven (1967)

Morrison had been "making out" with a fan backstage in a bathroom shower stall prior to the start of the concert when a police officer happened upon them. Unaware that he was the lead singer of the band about to perform, the officer told Morrison and the girl to leave, to which Morrison said, "Eat it." The policeman took out a can of mace and warned Morrison, "Last chance", to which Morrison replied, "Last chance to eat it." There is some discrepancy as to what happened next: according to No One Here Gets Out Alive, the girl ran and Morrison was maced; but Manzarek recounts in his book that both Jim and the fan were sprayed and that the concert was delayed for an hour while Jim recovered.

Halfway through the first set, Morrison proceeded to go on an obscenity-laced tirade to the audience, explaining what had happened backstage and belittling New Haven police. Then Morrison was arrested and dragged offstage. Morrison was punched by the police and taken to a local police station, photographed and booked on charges of inciting a riot, indecency and public obscenity. Charges against Morrison, as well as those against three journalists also arrested in the incident (Mike Zwerin, Yvonne Chabrier and Tim Page), were dropped several weeks later due to lack of evidence.

Waiting for the Sun:

Recording of the group's third album in April 1968 was marred by tension as a result of Morrison's increasing dependence on alcohol and drugs, and the rejection of his new epic, "Celebration of the Lizard", by band producer Paul Rothchild, who deemed the work not commercial enough. Approaching the height of their popularity, The Doors played a series of outdoor shows that led to frenzied scenes between fans and police, particularly at Chicago Coliseum on May 10.

Jim Morrison on stage in 1968.

The band began to branch out from their initial form for this third LP. Because they had exhausted their original repertoire, they began writing new material. Waiting for the Sun became their first No. 1 LP, and the single "Hello, I Love You" was their second and last US No. 1 single. With the 1968 release of "Hello, I Love You", the rock press pointed out the song's resemblance to The Kinks' 1964 hit, "All Day and All of the Night". Kinks guitarist Dave Davies was particularly irritated by the similarity. In concert, Morrison was occasionally dismissive of the song, leaving the vocal chores to Manzarek, as can be seen in the documentary The Doors are Open.

A month after riotous scenes took place at the Singer Bowl in New York, the group flew to Britain for their first venue outside of North America. They held a press conference at the ICA Gallery in London and played shows at The Roundhouse Theatre. The results of the trip were broadcast on Granada TV's The Doors Are Open, later released on video. They played dates in Europe, along with Jefferson Airplane, including a show in Amsterdam where Morrison collapsed on stage after a drug binge.

The group flew back to the US and played nine more US dates before returning to work in November on their fourth LP. They ended the year with a successful new single, "Touch Me" (released in December 1968), which hit US No. 3. They started 1969 with a sold-out show on January 24 at Madison Square Garden.

1969–71

The Soft Parade:

The Doors' fourth album, The Soft Parade, released in July 1969, contained pop-oriented arrangements and horn sections. The lead single "Touch Me" featured saxophonist Curtis Amy.

While the band was trying to maintain their previous momentum, efforts to expand their sound gave the album an experimental feel, causing critics to attack their musical integrity. According to John Densmore in his biography Riders On The Storm individual writing credits were noted for the first time because of Morrison's reluctance to sing the lyrics of Robby Krieger's song "Tell All the People". Morrison's drinking made him difficult and unreliable, and the recording sessions dragged on for months. Studio costs piled up, and The Doors came close to disintegrating. Despite all this, the album was immensely successful, becoming the band's fourth hit album.

Miami Incident:

On March 1, 1969, at the Dinner Key Auditorium in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, The Doors gave the most controversial performance of their career, one that nearly "derailed the band". Morrison had recently attended a play by an experimental theater group, The Living Theatre, and was inspired by their "antagonistic" style of performance art. The auditorium was a converted seaplane hangar that had no air conditioning on that hot night, and the seats had been removed by the promoter in order to boost ticket sales.

Morrison had been drinking all day and had missed connecting flights to Miami, and by the time he eventually arrived the concert was over an hour late in starting, and he was, according to Manzarek, "overly fortified with alcohol". The restless crowd of 12,000, packed into a facility designed to hold 7,000, was subjected to Morrison's lack of interest in singing shortly into "Break On Through".

Morrison taunted the crowd with messages of both love and hate, saying, "Love me. I can't take it no more without no good love. I want some lovin'. Ain't nobody gonna love my ass?" and alternately, "You're all a bunch of fuckin' idiots!" and screaming "What are you gonna do about it?" over and over again. At one point, Morrison removed the hat of an onstage police officer and threw it into the crowd; the officer, in turn, removed Morrison's hat and threw it. Manager Bill Siddons recalled, "The gig was a bizarre, circus-like thing, there was this guy carrying a sheep and the wildest people that I'd ever seen". Equipment chief Vince Treanor said, "Somebody jumped up and poured champagne on Jim so he took his shirt off, he was soaking wet. 'Let's see a little skin, let's get naked,' he said, and the audience started taking their clothes off." Having removed his shirt, Morrison held it in front of his groin area and started to make hand movements behind it. Manzarek later described the incident as a mass "religious hallucination".

On March 5, the Dade County Sheriff's office issued a warrant for Morrison's arrest claiming Morrison deliberately exposed his penis while on stage, shouted obscenities to the crowd, simulated oral sex on guitarist Robby Krieger and was drunk at the time of his performance. Morrison turned down a plea bargain that required The Doors to perform a free Miami concert. He was later convicted, sentenced to six months in jail, with hard labor, and ordered to pay a $500 fine. Morrison remained free pending an appeal of his conviction, and would die before the matter was legally resolved. In 2007 Florida Governor Charlie Crist suggested the possibility of a posthumous pardon for Morrison, which was announced as successful on December 9, 2010. Densmore, Krieger and Manzarek have denied the allegation that Morrison exposed himself on stage that night.